analogwriting

[analogwriting]

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

[analogwriting]

[analogwriting]

It feels like this every time I write a fic

[analogwriting]

nvm im just dramatic

tryna post a new chapter on ao3 and it went down PLEASEEEEE 😭😭

[analogwriting]

tryna post a new chapter on ao3 and it went down PLEASEEEEE 😭😭

[analogwriting]

The Other Side of Paradise

Chapter 17: Pools

Killer x gn!reader word count: 3.2k a/n: whoops on that two week wait. didn't mean to. store's been crazyyyyy tags: @tremendoushorsepatrolgoth, @h0n3y-l3m0n05 first|next

Corazon tells you all that you have a week to settle in and adjust to things before you really start getting to work for your official debut with the company. There will be a new single along with a music video. You already had a song in mind to use - one of the many that you had written down in your massive pile of songs to be fleshed out and completed. 

You would randomly become inspired during random moments, so you’d just write on whatever whenever. There were all kinds of things in it. Napkins you wrote on, small pieces of paper, a crushed can, and some other miscellaneous items. You even had a t-shirt because you couldn’t find anything else to write on so you started writing on yourself.

It was odd, you never thought yourself much of a song writer, but it seemed to come easily. You had always seen yourself as the management, logical type. Not the creative machine you seemed to have become. Was it because of everything that happened? Or is it something that just kind of hit you out of the blue? You had no idea.

That night, the four of you ordered take out, took some celebratory shots, and went to bed. You had a long week ahead of you. You had to go back and get all the things you left, after all.

--

And that’s exactly what you did. The four of you took that week to head back to your hometown, grab a uhaul with all of your things, and go back to the penthouse. You spent the week settling everything in, unpacking and decorating. It didn’t take long before it finally felt like somewhat of a home. It was all still too new and unlived in to fully be called home, but it was a start.

It was a perfect blend of all four of your personalities and you loved it.

Once you were settled in, you decided to have a party, inviting all your friends to the new place. Not everyone could make it this time, unfortunately, but that was okay. You had their gifts packed up and sent out. You were giving them all keys to the penthouse so that they could come and visit anytime they liked, not giving the four of you the chance to ghost everyone.

You were determined to not let that happen. No matter what. It also seemed to ease some minds. Naturally, there was some tension and worry when the four of you made the announcement, but this helped ease worries. Can’t ghost your friends if not given a chance.

A couple of days after the party, you began working on the new song. You had the song picked out, you just had to figure out the sound. You stayed up late in the studio, mixing and tinkering with different sounds on your various instruments the four of you had. You had been sure to know how to play several instruments since you were the one creating the music. That way you wouldn’t always have to rely on everyone else to also be there working long nights.

“Y/n.” You woke up with a start, startled as all hell. You look up, seeing Hop standing there with a coffee in her hand. “Hey.” She smiled, handing you the mug.

You thank her and take a sip. The warmth of the beverage felt like someone was wrapping a freshly dried blanket around you. You hummed in contentment before looking at your mixing board.

“How’s it coming along?” She looked down at what you had so far.

You sighed, shrugging. “It’s coming. Just struggling with some of the drum measures. They don’t quite sound right.”

“Why don’t you call Dive in? I’m sure she can help - she’s our drummer, after all.”

You shook your head. “It’s late, I don’t want to bother her.”

Hop rolled her eyes, pulling out her phone and shooting a text. “We’re a band, y/n. Don’t forget that. We’re all in this together. Until the end. If you’re stuck, let us help. You don’t have to do everything yourself. It’s not like the three of us have jobs to do anymore. This is our fulltime gig, let us help out. Besides, we were best friends before all of this. Of course we’re here to help, c’mon now.”

You look at her for a long moment and let out a resigned sigh. You nodded; she was right. You always just did everything yourself. Asking for help was something you struggled with the most. The other three typically had their jobs to take care of and you didn’t want to disrupt that. They didn’t have those now, so they were at your beck and call esentially.

It wasn’t long before both Dive and Bubblegum showed up.

“You were stuck and didn’t even ask us for help? I’m hurt, y/n.” Bubblegum frowned, grabbing his chest dramatically. You snorted and rolled your eyes at him. Drama queen. Then you furrowed your eyebrows. “Wait, why are you here?” It was Dive’s drum expertise you needed.

Bubblegum scoffed, rolling his eyes. “You act like we aren’t all best friends and basically attached to the hip anyway. Of course I’m also gonna help.”

You felt your face heat up with embarrassment. He was right. As many fresh eyes as possible was probably best for things like this. You took a deep breath, nodding. “Yeah, yeah. Alright, so what I have been stuck on is…”

After they showed up, they immediately went to work. Dive took what you had so far, listening to what you already had and before long she was giving her opinion and notes. You couldn’t help but be shocked. Sometimes you forgot that Dive was a fully capable adult and not just a kid sister that was a ball of chaos.

You didn’t know why when you thought about it. The four of you had been doing this for a long time now, so it made sense that she knew what she was talking about. You just needed the reminder, you supposed.

--

The rest of everything came relatively easy. Once you leaned on your friends a little more and started delegating a bit more, everything fell into place. It wasn’t long after that that you had a new song to present to Corazon.

“Sounds fantastic.” There was a smile plastered on your manager’s face as he listened to your song. “I like the sound and it fits with what you guys have been doing. I knew leaving it in your hands was the way to go.” 

You let out a sigh of relief. You were worried he wasn’t going to like it - though, you were sure he would’ve given the green light no matter what you gave him. Music was subjective, after all.

“Oh good. We worked really hard on it, so I’m glad you liked it. I was a little nervous.”

“It’s your first song being signed with us, of course you’re nervous. Now, should we release the song and then work on the mv, or should we just release it at once. What do you want to do?”

You looked at him, thinking. As much as you wanted to push out new content for your fans, you didn’t want to rush everything and make them wait too long between the song and the music video. Dive had been doing pretty good with keeping them engaged on social media. She was posting pictures here and there, hinting that something was coming. Everyone was already excited about it, so you wanted to deliver but not quite yet.

“I think we should shoot the mv. Then we can release the song then a week later do the mv? That way people have time to enjoy the song and create their own visuals before we give them ours. I don’t want to do everything all at once and overload them.”

Corazon nodded, folding his arms. “You know your fans best.” Perks of being pretty pre-established. “You’re going to have to do a couple of interviews. I know you’re not really an interview kind of group or one to go on shows - so we’ll have to approach things a little differently for you guys.” He tapped his chin, thinking. 

Usually, when one of their groups released a new song or album, they did several interviews both on radio and on television, but he knew that you wanted to keep your identities hidden. The whole appeal of your group was its mysteriousness, so doing too much PR was off brand and would ruin the image you had worked so hard to curate. You also risked being found out as well.

“What if we did a couple magazine interviews? They can email questions and I can answer them that way. Maybe even over the phone?” You would wait to do a television interview or radio until later. You planned on releasing an album here in the next few months, so you wanted to do all the bigger things later.

Corazon nodded. “That could work - if that's what you want to do.” You nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do,” he said. “I’ll have people send a list via email of questions they want to ask and you can answer however you’d like. Just send it to me first so I can look it over before sending it over.” 

You nodded. “Sounds good.”

“I’ll have them send it now and you can go ahead and answer them, but we’ll schedule things to be released after the mv comes out. Keep the content rolling and such.” Corazon was making notes on his phone. You were taking mental notes. A constant stream of content to roll out would be nice so they wouldn’t have to wait so long for the album. They feel like there’s less of a wait.

“After we finish recording the mv and while it’s being edited, we’ll have you perform it live with everyone and we’ll record that too then we can release it a couple weeks after the mv. Also when we release the song, we’ll have you do a few live performances around in general to perform it. Just small shows to generate some hype. It’ll just be the one song. Just standard promotional stuff.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket.

You nodded, leaning back into your chair. “Sounds good to me. I’ll also have Dive keep posting some behind the scenes content,” you said with a shrug.

With that, he left and you turned back to pull out your planner and make notes of everything coming up.

--

As promised, Corazon gave you complete control over who helped with the mv. You called in a few of your friends for help. You’d be able to work much more comfortably with people you were familiar with, not to mention, you don’t have to be extra stressed about concealing your identities. The recording of the music video went smoothly and without a hitch. Dive took plenty of pictures for the band’s pages. Your fans were excited for the announcement and the new content.

While the video was being edited, the song was dropped. It was received with immediate and overwhelming love and support. The fans were loving it, you even garnered new fans. Dive made the announcement and posted the group photo that you guys took in front of the building. Fans were also excited about this. After all, this same group had other large names with it.

Dive said that people were already asking for multiple collabs with different bands under the same label. She made sure to stay vague but also being honest saying that there weren’t any plans in the works for now.

You did the interviews and they were published, your fans excited about all the content they were getting. Usually when you dropped a song or an album, there wasn’t a ton of coverage because you weren’t that popular nor did you have the connections. Now that you did - your fans were ecstatic.

The music video dropped and everyone was going bonkers. Now that you had a label behind you paying for most of the things, your music videos could be more elaborate and intricate, which the audience immediately fell in love with. Your band’s music videos were already a hit because of the stories they could tell and how they all tied together with some lore, but this went above and beyond and everyone was going crazy. Your fans loved interpreting your songs and videos and you guys loved reading them. People were so inspiring and creative.

You did the live performances. There were only a couple at some small venues, but all of them sold out. You didn’t stick around to meet fans or anything not that they were expecting it either. They knew the nature of you guys, so they didn’t expect a meet and greet. They were just excited for the massive amounts of content that were being released.

A recording of one of the live performances dropped and people went wild over that too. You’d never dropped a live performance video before. Not a professional and official one, at least. Sure, there were people who recorded it or fan cams, but nothing to this level of professionalism and everyone was enjoying being able to notice different things all of you did. Or people who couldn’t attend the concerts for whatever reason also had a better experience as well.

Everything seemed to be going fantastically and you were over the moon. You were so elated with the outcome of everything. Your popularity boosted. Corazon was also pleased with the outcome, knowing that it was only up from here. You were well received and his first solo signing was a success so far. Though, you still had a long way to go.

Slowly, over the weeks, Dive continued to post various behind the scenes to keep the hype up. She kept things up to date, also updating you with requests that fans wanted to see. She managed all of that and was good at it. She also just enjoyed it. She enjoyed interacting with the fans.

You weren’t one for social media, so Dive kept you up to date as well. 

After promotions were over, you immediately went into focusing on the album. You had already been toying with some ideas of a theme that you wanted to go with, now you just needed to solidify it and think of what story you wanted to craft with it and how to tie it to everything else. Not too direct either, your fans loved coming up with their own stories, after all. Not to mention you needed to figure out what songs to put on it, the vibes, etc. You had a long road ahead of you, but luckily your friends and bandmates were right at your side.

Since the song was so well received, you decided to match that vibe for the upcoming album. You’d probably throw the song on there too. You’d probably have to pick out another couple songs to do music videos too as well.

“Y/n?” You were in the penthouse, laptop in front of you, various instruments, lyrics, music sheets, and soundboards strung across the table you were working at. You had decided to move to the dining table to change scenery from your room. You’d been cooped up in there for days at this point.

You looked up, seeing Corazon. You blinked, looking around as you remembered where you were. “What’s up, boss?” Your manager also had a key to your penthouse, but that didn’t bother you. He never came when you weren’t there and you knew you would trust him. He was under contract, after all. Not that he really gave you a reason to not trust him.

“For the new album, I was thinking you guys could do a collaboration?” You blinked again, processing his words. A collab? You couldn’t imagine who with. You were still too new. Surely, you wouldn’t be collabing with them. Not yet, anyway. If that was ever on the table, you’re not sure if you’d accept or if you’d be able to function around them enough to do one. You didn’t want to be around them, just wanted to be like them - beat them at their own game.

“Since you guys are gaining traction, doing a collab with a group bigger than yours can help boost popularity a little and spread your name faster.” He took a seat across from you and you watched him carefully. He still didn’t know about your secret vendetta.

“With?” You spoke slowly, still processing.

“My son actually has a band. The Heart Pirates. I’m sure you’ve heard of them.”

You nodded. They were pretty big in the label - one of the top groups, actually. Then you stopped as his words were fully processed in your burnt out brain. “Son?”

Corazon looked and chuckled, nodding. “Yes. My son. I adopted him at a young age. Took him in. Law.”

You stared at him for a long moment. You were picturing the grumpy man and then trying to picture Corazon next to him. Law was known for his shit attitude, but it was mostly just him being annoyed by everyone’s presence ever. It matched the punk vibe of his band just like Kid’s did.

“I’m having a hard time picturing it.” You tilted your head to the side. Storm and sunshine. Sun and moon. Or whatever have you. 

“I know. He’s pretty rough around the edges, but he’s a good kid. Anyway, I talked to him and he said he’d be okay with doing the collab.”

“I’m assuming he’s okay with it because this is your first solo signing?” you teased, setting your pen down and sitting back as you stretched.

You watched as Corazon’s face heated up as he nodded. “Y-yeah.” Sometimes you had no idea how this man got into the position he was in. He seemed to do good when it came down to it, just goofy.

You nodded, thinking for a moment. “I’ll have to talk to the crew, but I think they would be okay with it.” You smiled at him and he let out a sigh of relief.

“A collab could be fun and I think I could make it fit the vibe for an album. We make the same genre of music, after all. It’ll also be our first ever collab, so please be patient with us.”

Corazon nodded quickly as he stood up with excitement, knocking the chair clean over. “Of cour- oh, sorry.” He picked it up, carefully pushing it back in.

“Just shoot me a text and we’ll get everything set up!” Then he dashed out the door with a newfound excitement. You were sure he was just excited to work with his son more. You heard something crash, but it was outside of your apartment and no longer your problem. You snorted, sliding headphones on as you went back to work.

[analogwriting]

why the fuck do i have so many different plots for band aus hello????

[analogwriting]

i was gonna work on the next chapter while doing laundry at my aunts and when i opened my computer, it was like "update? uwu" and i was like ah cool sure.

it was not cool. that bitch took three hours. so i was forced to take a nap smh

[analogwriting]

PSA for fanfic writers

[analogwriting]

me, the motherfucker with over 50 abandoned works in progress: i have an idea

[analogwriting]

i don't care if these characters have never interacted in canon. it's called fanfiction, not fanfact

[analogwriting]

[analogwriting]

[analogwriting]

The Other Side of Paradise

Chapter 16: Intruxx

Killer x gn!reader word count: 3.1k tags: @tremendoushorsepatrolgoth, @h0n3y-l3m0n05 first|next

After a few minutes, there was a large thud on the door that sounded like something ran into it. The four of you jumped and you went over to it, slowly opening it. Corazon, the man you were waiting for, fell to the ground, grumbling.

You immediately jumped to help him up. “Oh my god, are you okay?” He nodded as he stood up, thanking you for your help. “Just a little clumsy.” He moved to close the door behind him and you took your spot in a seat next to your friends on the opposite side of the table that Corazon sat. 

For a moment, the five of you sat there. Corazon looked at each of you and you all looked at him - it was kind of awkward. He moved to pull out papers from his briefcase. “Oh, where is your manager? I know I spoke to them on the phone.” 

Your face warmed up and you sighed. “That was actually me. I panicked and lied to you.” Might as well be honest now. You were about to work together. “I thought you’d think less of us if we didn’t have an official manager.” That was somewhat true. You did think places would think of you less without a manager, but it was mostly because you didn’t have your voice modulator and just panicked.

Corazon chuckled, shaking his head. “No, no. That actually makes things a little easier, if I’m honest.” He looked at you with a warm smile. You weren’t expecting this man to be so nice. You thought he’d be a cold, corporate head that only saw you as dollar signs but so far, his vibe seemed genuine. “After all, if I sign you. I would be your manager.” He smiled sheepishly at you.

“And if I’m going to be honest, you guys are the first group I’m signing. My brother finally decided to let me have full control over a group. I get to bring them in, sign them, and do what we want. So, I suppose we both lied in a way. I didn’t exactly tell you this was my first time doing all of this by myself.” He had a panicked look in his eye as you looked surprised. “Not that I don’t know what I’m doing! I’ve done plenty of this with my brother before. I just mean-”

“Cora, it’s alright. I know what you’re saying. It’s fine.” Honestly, you didn’t mind that at all. It made things a little easier. You’d probably be able to have a little more control over things or influence. Not that you planned on taking advantage of him or anything, but you had a feeling you’d be able to have a bit more breathing room. It would also help when negotiations would start.

He looked at you and nodded with a sigh. “Sorry, I’m nervous.” He slid the papers towards you.

“I think that’s supposed to be our line.” You snorted, taking the papers and looking over them. “Right…” he mumbled.

The room fell somewhat quiet as you looked through the papers. You were taking your time looking it over, making sure there wasn’t anything shady. You went to school for this kind of shit, you were putting your degree to use.

“Is everything okay? Most people just sign it.” Corazon looked at you, worried.

You looked up at him, shrugging. “I’m seeing. I’m not going to just sign it. I don’t know what’s in it and I want to make sure we get treated fairly.” 

He nodded, his legs bouncing as he waited for you to finish. “When you fidget and act like that as I’m looking it over, it makes it seem like you put some bad things in here,” you commented, not looking up from the papers.

He jumped. “No. That’s not-”

“Relax, I’m messing with you.” You snorted. He was the jumpy sort.

Once you finished, you sighed, bringing out a pen. “Okay. There’s a few things I am not a fan of.” 

Corazon looked at you, once again worried. You shook your head. “No major deal breakers, just things I don’t like and would like to discuss about.” He nodded, waiting for your notes.

“First of all,” you started, circling some parts of the contract. “I want us to have full control over our social media. We’re not going to have some corporate team be in charge of it. It loses its genuineness and personality when that happens. We’ll stick to guidelines if there’s a certain image you are trying to go for, but we want to be able to be the ones to run it. Dive’s done it this far and it’s been just fine.” 

Dive never put anything too wild on there. There wasn’t an overabundance of cursing or bad imagery. She was pretty good at sticking to the theme of the band. She didn’t post pictures of you partying. It was mostly just pictures of you getting ready or behind the scenes things. Of course, not without your masks. You didn’t want people to know who you were in real life, after all.

The only way you could trust that your identities would still be safe was that you were in full control over it. You couldn’t trust some random people to really make sure that your identities would be fully covered. That’s how leaks and mistakes happened. You were too far in the game to let fuck ups happen now.

Corazon nodded, thinking for a moment. “I’ve looked at your guys’ social media and you seemed to do a pretty good job with it. As long as you keep doing what you’re doing, I think we can manage that.”

He also took the paper, writing something down. “We can go on a strike system. If you go too crazy and off the wall with it, you get a strike. After three, we seize it and control it - is that okay?” He looked at you.

You nodded. “I don’t think that will be a problem.” You had full faith your social media habits were good enough that it was a non-issue. Dive knew what she was doing. She might be a ball of chaos, but she was smart.

He slid the paper back to you after writing down his part of that deal and initialling it.

“Second, I want full control and say in the staffing. Security at events, stylists, lighting, sound, all of it. My first priority is protecting the identity of myself and my bandmates. I can only ensure that if I have control over what is going on.” After all, you could probably bring on a lot of your friends as well. You knew they’d help protect you.

Corazon looked uneasy for a moment. He thought long and hard before nodding. “You’ve made it this far, I trust your judgement. You also seemed to know what you’re talking about and determined.” He took the paper, initialling next to your edit.

You nodded, once again knowing and fully trusting your friends. You knew that your friends were all professionals. Sure, you goofed off, but when it came down to it - this was just what you did. This is what you were good at. There was no way they’d flub it up. 

Man, you were glad you had the following you did or you probably wouldn’t have had any leverage at all. You were also glad Corazon was as nice as he was. He seemed willing to work with you.

He slid the paper back to you. 

“Third. We want full control over producing. All the music we make, themes we come up with, all of that is on us. We don’t want someone writing our songs, messing with our sound, making our themes. We will be a self produced group. Just as we’ve always been. We’re not going to turn into corporate monkeys that have the same sound as everyone else. We were able to come along this far being self produced, I don’t want to lose our own sound and style. Of course, we’ll still run things by you guys and you’re welcome to give pointers and such, but we get final say.”

Corazon thought for a long moment, shrugging. “We can do that. Like you said, you’ve come this far. And that’s what drew me to you guys in the first place. Your unique sound and style. Not many people do what you do.” He took the paper, writing on it. “But as you said, run everything by us first. Just to make sure you’re not going too rogue or trying to trash talk the company.”

You nodded. That was reasonable enough. It made sense they wouldn’t want to approve a song that said the company sucked and it was awful. Even if it did end up being like that, you’d probably find a less obvious way to put it that would go right over their heads anyway. You were basically just signing to have more reach and more opportunities at this point.

He slid the paper back.

“Lastly,” you began, pulling your own papers out. “An NDA.” The look on his face was full of confusion. You slid the papers to him. “If you’re going to be our manager, you’ll need to know who we are out of our characters. I need to know I can trust you to keep that a secret. And I can’t just go on your word. You seem nice enough, but I can’t just go on an honor system.”

He looked at you for a moment before looking down at the papers you slid to him.

“This is just to ensure our safety and we will go, no pun intended-”

“Full pun intended,” Bubblegum interjected.

“Full mask off.” You glanced at your friend. He couldn’t see your small smirk at his joke, but he knew. You four knew each other enough that your masks couldn’t keep your facial expressions from each other.

You looked back at Corazon. “It just states that if you reveal our identities, the contract we sign with you is null and void and we can break it at any time with no consequence. Fully leave this company with no repercussions and all of our revenue will go straight to us. Nothing will go to you.”

He looked at you with a surprised look on his face.

“Like I said, I don’t mess around when it comes to the safety of my friends. I need to know that I can trust you. I need it to really hurt if you end up betraying us.” You looked him dead in the eye, unwavering. This part was non-negotiable. You were ready to walk straight out of the building should he not agree with it.

“We have discussed that we might reveal our own identities one day. But not any time soon. I’m just ensuring that it doesn’t prematurely happen. The less people that know who we are, the better. You are going to be the only person in this entire company that will know who we are.”

He squirmed a little under your gaze, clearly intimidated by you. He was quiet for a moment before signing the papers. “Done.” He slid them back to you. You gave him the copy. 

You slid the other contract back to him. “Once you make the changes we discussed and reprint this, I’ll look over it a final time and we’ll sign it. I can’t trust our handwriting will hold on this. For all I know, you’ll just reprint it and all of this will be for no reason.” 

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” he mumbled as he pulled out a laptop and immediately went to work on making the adjustments.

The four of you glanced at each other. The anxiety and anticipation you were all feeling was insane. You all linked hands under the table as you waited, nervous as all hell. You were ready for this to just be over with.

After about ten minutes, Corazon stood up and headed over to the printer where the new contract was shooting out. He slid the papers over to you once more and again, you took your time looking over it. He seemed surprised you were looking over it again even though you just went over it.

“Just making sure that you didn’t slide anything in at the last second. I don’t fully trust you just yet. Nothing against you. We’ve just been hurt too many times,” you said as you were reading.

He jumped a little in his chair as you seemed to be reading his mind. You weren’t about to let anyone take advantage of you. Not again.

After a few minutes, you nodded. He made the changes you asked for and didn’t slide in anything malicious. You didn’t think he would, but it didn’t hurt to be safe. You took your pen, signing it, your friends signing it before sliding it back to Corazon.

Corazon took his copy of his NDA and the contract you just signed, putting it in his suitcase. “Now, you can freely take your masks off if you like-”

You shook your head, pointing to the camera in the corner of the room. “You have our real names on paper, yes. The camera didn’t pick that up. I made sure to pick an angle of seating that it couldn’t. But that’s for your eyes only and the eyes of the law.” Were you kinda just speaking out of your ass to sound more serious? Maybe.

“But there are still cameras. I’m not going to let our identities be on camera either. It’s in the NDA. We will reveal ourselves to you once we are safe in the place we are staying at. I will look over the place to make sure there’s no weird shit like cameras and mics and that’s when we’ll let you see our faces and names.”

He hadn’t even looked at the contract when the four of you signed it, so you knew that he still didn’t know your real names yet. He wasn’t allowed to speak them out loud anyway. Part of the NDA.

Corazon looked amazed by you. “You really thought of everything. I’ve never met someone so thorough - besides my brother.”

You shrugged. “This is what I went to school for. Took a lot of legal classes. The reason we started this band was for a specific reason and I want to make sure that it comes to fruition without any issues. I didn’t want to come into this kind of thing blind and us get fucked over. I know the industry can be like this - no matter how nice you seem to be.” 

He swallowed hard and nodded. “I-I understand.” 

He stood up, gathering everything up. “Meet me out front in five and I’ll lead you to your new home.”

With that, he headed out of the room.

You let out a large sigh of relief, melting into the chair. The other three did the same, groaning and collapsing. 

“That was the most stressed I’ve ever been. Not even finals were ever that bad!” Dive slumped onto the table, grumbling.

“That was actually incredibly impressive,” Hop said, looking at you. You shrugged. “I’ve been doing a lot of research. Read a lot of statements from older bands from this label. A lot of people have been screwed over by Doflamingo. However, they’re able to cover it up and keep people quiet with contracts and money. Few things can slip through the cracks and I found them.” 

You sighed, standing up and stretching. “Anyway. Let’s go see our new place.” The others stood up and headed out with you.

--

“Holy fucking shit!” Bubblegum’s voice bounced off the walls of the large fucking penthouse the five of you were standing in.

“I’m assuming that’s a good thing?” Corazon chuckled. 

“Yes, it’s a good thing!” 

The penthouse that was assigned to the four of you was fucking ginormous. You would definitely have room for all the things you had put into storage. It was bigger than the house you had rented out. It was bigger than the house you grew up in. 

“How were we able to luck out with such a large place? I thought we’d start off somewhere smaller.” The other three were excitedly chatting away and looking around the large, four bedroom penthouse. You were still with Corazon, looking at him warily. Not that he could tell with your mask.

“Because I have that much faith in you. You’re my first group. I suppose I might be a little overzealous, but I think you guys are gonna end up being massive. Maybe I’m just hoping if I treat you really well from the get go, it’ll work out in my favor too. I want to impress my brother too, after all.” He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets.

You nodded, looking at him for a moment. There was something off kilter every time he mentioned his brother - some kind of pain. There was fondness, coldness, and pain. There was something clearly going on there more complex than you knew, but it wasn’t your business to pry.

“Well, we’ll make sure that it all pays off. I know you must be a little stressed as I pretty much made us independent, but you put that trust in us and I will make sure it’s not in vain. We’ll make it big, just you watch.” You looked around before looking back at Corazon.

“Give me a couple minutes to look over the place.” He nodded, letting you inspect everything.

You checked everything. You couldn’t risk anything. You’d come this far and some of the stories you read were terrifying. Cameras and mics shoved in every crevice, recording their every movement, being used as blackmail. You weren’t going to let your friends be a victim. Though, the NDA that was signed covered things like that, too. So even if they did have any of that, it’d violate the contract he signed and you could get out scot free.

Everything checked out. You couldn’t find anything. You called your friends and headed over to Corazon. “Well, everything seems fine so…” You trailed off, taking off your own mask with a sigh. The others did the same.

Corazon blinked as he watched you guys reveal yourselves.

“I’m y/n,” you said. “This is Hop, Bubblegum, and Dive.” You pointed to your friends as you said their names, them offering a small wave. You looked back at Corazon, sticking out your hand for him to shake. “It’s a pleasure to officially meet you.” You smiled at him.

He took your hand, returning your smile. “It’s a pleasure to officially meet all of you too and I look forward to our time together.”

next

[analogwriting]

The Other Side of Paradise

Chapter 15: Walla Walla

Killer x gn!reader word count: 2.1k tags: @tremendoushorsepatrolgoth, @h0n3y-l3m0n05 first|next

The party lasted until the wee hours of the morning - as all your parties usually did. Everyone was drinking, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, and partying hard. The night was filled with endless laughing and catching up. It'd been quite a while since you were able to meet like this - all at once. It was a good feeling.

You felt at peace for the first time in a long time. 

When you woke up, it was well into the afternoon and you were still the first one awake. You went to move, only to find Dive sprawled across your lap. Sometimes you wonder if she was a cat in a past life. Specifically your cat, too.

She was a pretty heavy sleeper so moving out from under her wasn't too hard. You maneuvered around all your friends passed out every which way in every spot. You loved seeing it. Everyone looked so peaceful. It reminded you of your early days of college.

You made your way into the kitchen and started cooking up breakfast. You made sure to get plenty of everything to cover all the bases. You knew all your friends' allergies and preferences despite the large number of you. You made sure to accommodate everyone. Just as Killer used to. 

For a moment you paused, your mind floating away as you thought about the way things used to be. Your old routine - your old life. You missed the old times. Waking up next to Killer, roughhousing with Kid, gossiping with Wire, getting into trouble with Heat - you missed it all. They were the ones who were also there every step of your mother’s illness and through death. They were there your entire life basically. They had been all you knew.

And they threw it all away for fame.

SMACK!

You were suddenly ripped from your thoughts as something hit the back on your head…and hard. You yelped, rubbing the back of your head and looking next to you. To no surprise, it was Hop. She had her hand on her hip as she stared at you. “You know why,” she said before you could even say anything.

You frowned deeply and turned back to your task at hand, knowing she was right. You knew exactly why but you didn’t know how the hell she always knew when they were on your mind. Or how she always materialized at the right time.Though, you supposed that you always were teleported elsewhere, so it was probably easy. 

“We had a good time last night, don’t let them ruin it.” She moved around the kitchen, grabbing some stuff to help with breakfast.

“I know, I know,” you mumbled as you flipped eggs. Luckily, she had caught you just in time. Any longer and they would’ve been burned.

“We’re about to change our own lives. We’re going to make it big - bigger than them, even,” she said with a small snort. You smiled and nodded, a fond look on your face. She was right. You guys achieved a large goal that you thought was a pipedream. DQE was such a large label and they were so picky with their choices, that you thought they’d never come for you. You thought your concept might’ve been too experimental and abstract for a while there.

It was a miracle.

You took a deep breath and nodded. The next phase of your plan was to begin. What was that? You…weren’t sure. Honestly, you never thought you’d make it this far. You needed to expose them somehow. Or humiliate them. You just…didn’t know how to do any of that. You needed to see how everything was going over there before you really made a decision. You just wanted to be able to tear them down somehow.

As you made breakfast and the smell wafted through your empty house to the slumbering people, everyone started waking up. They were all starving and craving something greasy and disgusting. Something heavy and hangover curing - something you were an expert in. Years of partying made it easy to know all the do’s and don’ts of curing hangovers.

After everyone had their fill, it was time to clean. You were lucky to have good friends as they all helped clean before they slowly started leaving. Hop left with a group of them to take them back to the airport. They were only in town for the party, after all. 

Once everyone was out of the house and it was just you four again, it was evening by this time. You did some last minute super cleaning. Making sure that everything was thoroughly cleaned out. 

“Everything finished?” You looked up as Dive and Bubblegum came down the stairs from their runthrough of the upstairs. 

Dive nodded as she bounded over. “All clean.”

You nodded, pulling out four shot glasses. “Well, it’s officially our last night here.” You looked at them as they all took their glasses. There was a solemn look on all your faces. You were officially leaving. Moving on. You had no idea what was in store for you.

You’d been in this town your entire life. You were about to leave everything you knew behind and start the next leg of your journey with your friends. Everything was so vastly different within the last couple of years, but it was turning out alright. You weren’t as angry in your heart anymore, but you had to stick this through to the end. No matter what that ended up being.

“Here’s to the next leg of our journey.” You didn’t have a lot to say. You weren’t good at that and the four of you weren’t too cheesy like that anyway. 

You all clinked your shots before taking them. Then the four of you headed off to bed, having a long road ahead of you in the morning.

--

The trip there was long. However, this time you took your time. You gave yourselves plenty of time to get there, so there wasn’t any rush. There were some places you stopped to see, different foods to try. You took your time enjoying everything because you weren’t sure when you’d be able to again. You weren’t sure how much free time you were going to have once you got there, how much they might end up working you.

Since you already had a solid fanbase and your name was out there, you weren't exactly working from the ground up so some of those things might come a little easier. You wouldn’t have to push yourselves so hard - you lucked out with that. You knew these companies were notorious for overworking their staff if they started from the beginning.

When you arrive at the building, you feel the anxiety creeping into every part of your being. What if you were found out? What if you ran into them? What would you say? What would you do? Would you be able to hold back? It was just like it was a couple of years ago. It was as if no time passed, you were just as nervous.

“Hey.” You looked over at Hop and she shook her head. “They’re on tour right now anyway.” You closed your eyes and took a deep breath. She was right. You needed to keep an even head so that you could catch anything off about things. You were the one who was familiar with legalities and business practices. This is what you went to college for, after all. Time to put that degree to some use. And they weren’t here - they were on tour. You didn’t have to worry about running into them just yet. 

The four of you threw on your gear and headed into the building. Now that your identity was in disguise, you felt better - more confident. You wondered if that one receptionist was still working here and if she was still rude. Or maybe it would be a different story considering you weren’t here to see someone but were going to work here.

Before entering the building, Dive stopped everyone. “We need a picture.” She ran the band’s social media and was planning on announcing the signing later today, so pictures were a good thing to do. And just the memories to look back on would also be nice.

After taking a group photo in front of the sign with their logo on it, you walked into the building, feeling your heart in your throat. It all looked relatively the same, but at the same time, you don’t really remember what it looked like last time. You were in such a bad mental state and so frazzled that you didn’t really take in your surroundings. Everything seemed the same but you also didn’t have anything to base it off of.

The woman behind the counter was the same, however - that much you remember. She looked up at the four of you, blinking several times as she took you in. She spoke slowly, unsure of what was going on. “Can I…help you?”

You spoke up, saying your group name and that you were here to see Corazon. Her face lit up and she nodded. “Oh! He did tell me about you! Give me just a moment here.” She fumbled around her desk for a moment before pulling out a notebook and fanning through it. “Ah, here.”

She smiled up at you. “Follow me, please.” She stood up, heading around the desk and down the hallway. She was much nicer than the last time you were here. Probably because you didn’t look like some crazy, deranged fans this time. You were here for business. You were going to bring in money - hopefully. 

The four of you followed in silence as the woman guided you through the building. She was chattering away, explaining the history of the building, where things were, yadda, yadda, yadda. You were memorizing the layout, though this place was much bigger than you were seeing. You would have to go exploring sometime. You just liked to be familiar with places you were going to frequent.

“Well, you guys sure are a talkative bunch,” the woman before you said with a small huff. None of you had said anything the entire time. Which was on brand for your image, but could come off as rude to some

“We’re just…listening. You’re very knowledgeable.” You nod towards her and she seems to accept that answer - smiling and wiggling her shoulders in delight. “Thank you. I do know a lot about this place. Been with the Donquixotes a long time.”

She went back to yapping now that you’ve validated her. You already knew everything she was talking about since you had done extensive research, but you let her continue on. It was just easier that way.

She stopped in front of an open door, revealing an empty conference room. She held up her hand, showcasing it. “This is where you’ll wait for Cora. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call. The phone on the table there has a direct line to my desk. My name is Baby 5, by the way.” 

You thanked her, noting her odd name, and headed into the room. She closed the door after the four of you were completely inside, leaving you alone.

You look around for a moment before heading over to the large window in the room, looking down. The building was quite tall and overlooked the entire city. “Wow,” you mumbled, starting to feel some vertigo. You stepped back, holding your head. “We’re fuckin’ high.”

You’ve never been in such a large, fancy building like this. You stuck to small motels because they were cheap and you didn’t mind them. You were never there long anyway.

Dive immediately glued herself to the window, bouncing in excitement. “Oh, wow! That’s so cool!” She whipped out her phone, taking a selfie with the townscape in the background, probably also to be added to the post later. Whenever she posted several photos at once, there were always a couple with her taking some weird selfies. The fans loved it.

Bubblegum didn’t even bother going over there, he had a weird things with heights. Didn’t fuck with it. Hop was right next to Dive, enjoying the view and taking photos with her.

next

[analogwriting]

ofc when i finally sit down to work on the rest of this chapter, my cat wanted to play then just sliced the shit outta my wrist and i ain't got bandaids so i'm hoping that the blood ain't finna get too wild.

i just feel sorry for my stickers and hope they don't get ruined lmao

[analogwriting]

Always the writer, never the reader.